Hey guys, it's the "Year of Women" at Marvel. So here's a post about a Marvel woman!! It's the fabulous supervillain career of quote-unquote Madame Natasha, otherwise known as the Black Widow.

Black Widow first appeared as a non-costumed antagonist in Tales of Suspense 52. See also: Iron Man's greatest foe, communism. Earlier, the Crimson Dynamo, Ivan Vanko, defected to the US. Now, the Russians strike back!! "Comrade Leader" has summoned two agents for the job.

That's right, just waltz right in. It's not like Tony Stark could be busy, or anything.

A fight ensues, but Boris isn't that much of a thinker. So, Natasha strategizes for him, probably curing the fact that the KGB has armed her with nothing but lipstick while the stupid Boris gets cool stolen armor.

Natasha's ruse works, but only temporarily, as Vanko sacrifices himself to defeat Boris.

True to the text, Black Widow does reappear the next issue, cementing her as an eternal foe of Iron Man. Anyway, to set up, Tony Stark has just invented a fabulous anti-gravity ray, and Natasha is hiding from her Soviet handlers, knowing they do not take kindly to failures.

Pepper, of course, discovers that Tony is knocked out and the Black Widow and anti-grav ray are missing. Stark becomes the subject of much ridicule as he has to announce to the press that he's lost his anti-gravity device almost as soon as he built it.

We meet Natasha's true arch-nemesis: idiot goons. They can't handle the ray effectively, leading Iron Man to discover their position. Natasha outwits one of his ruses, but then—

THE GOONS STRIKE. Amazingly, though, she beats Iron Man nonetheless, burying him in a huge pile of rocks. No one can survive being buried in a huge pile of rocks! She's also come up with a plan to get the gold from Fort Knox!

But, alas, it turns out Iron Man isn't dead, and this time he's come up with a plan to defeat Black Widow– turn off the damn anti-grav ray. Also, the goons charge headfirst into battle, running underneath the giant floating mountain, the place to be.

You heard it here first. Commies: they just don't dig us.

3 pages of 26 from Tales of Suspense 52, 4 from Tales of Suspense 53. Each Iron Man story is 13 pages.